How to PR your staff

Your staff are one of the key elements that will help to determine the success of your business as a whole. Without their valuable input of developing skills and ongoing loyalty, your hotel or restaurant will cease to exist. They contribute to the strength of your brand and form part of the face of your identity. Therefore, it’s essential to PR their presence effectively in order to preserve the progression of your ongoing succession. To do this, you need to firstly and most importantly, position them as the experts in your business.

Take the head chef as a prime example. Their sole contribution forms part of the main vocal point of your hotel or restaurant’s daily activity. From the menus they create, to the dishes that they produce, their input is a key driving force behind the number of bookings that you will go on to receive.

In order to promote their invaluable offerings effectively, we advise the following tips to PR them with a position in the hospitality industry as the forefront of your business:

Blogs are one of the fastest methods of gaining quick wins in PR. By having a presence on your website alone will help to draw the attention of both current and prospective cliental towards the identity and skill set of your chef. Furthermore, it will present a direct opportunity for them to buy into the experience they are looking to gain by providing them with further insight into what they can hope to encounter by making a booking.

By publishing regular recipes through written articles and video representations will help to promote your chef’s skill set through the dishes that have been created for your menus. In turn, this will help to gain coverage for your business as a whole, enticing people to want to visit and sample the dishes they’ve seen being created and meet the person behind the pass.

Use your social media accounts to help drive traffic towards your blog by posting regular images of the subject posts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram along with direct links through to the page. If people like what they see, this will encourage them to action the click that will enable them to find out more, and before you know it, your chef’s name is known and you’ve generated a booking as a result.

Regular columns and features

It’s a well-known fact that people are often governed by what they read in the press, with their actions often being influenced by the nature of a story. Therefore, by gaining your chef a regular presence in a publication will help to gain them recognition for the work they do for your business. From their initial appointment, to the release of new seasonal menus, there is always a story to be told and coverage to be obtained. A regular column with seasonal recipes, or insights into daily routines and culinary inspirations will help to inspire prospective customers to want to share these experiences, which will lead them into wanting to sample the food being produced and meet the person behind such creations.

Internal marketing and PR

From a strategic point of view, it will be good for your business and the PR surrounding it to involve the chef in all marketing and PR meetings. This will allow them to fully understand the bigger picture in which their role plays a vital part. In turn, this will help them to execute the PR-ing of their image more effectively by knowing what contributions can be made at a specific point in time that will as a result, generate further awareness surrounding their role within your business.

Utilising your PR programme

Look at ways your chef can contribute to your PR programme that will help to generate both short and long term wins. Drive the level of attention surrounding them, by issuing call to action incentives that requires their input. For example, competition prizes including ‘dinner for two’ at the chef’s table, or a cookery lesson hosted by the chef themselves will help to create awareness around the job that they do. Organise special events hosted by the chef, specifically tailored around showcasing the skills that they have, the dishes that they produce and the things that inspire them to cook, for example the foraging and sourcing of local ingredients.

Media briefings days

Organise for journalists to meet the person behind the pass by inviting them to interview the chef. Provide them with an exclusive insight into the chef’s daily routine, the secrets and skills behind the dishes on the menu and the culinary journey that has been taken to land them with a role in your kitchen. Again, make sure you continue to spread the word and increase awareness of any news and events by posting regular updates across all of your social media accounts.

Overall, these are just a few of the key pointers that will successfully enable you to PR your staff into the public eye. However, once you’ve acquired awareness and gained coverage, you must make sure that the process remains ongoing.